Hamilton is dropped

Cycling: Tyler Hamilton faces an uncertain future after it was revealed yesterday that his contract has been terminated by Phonak and that no firm conclusions had been reached by a scientific committee set up by his team to investigate two positive blood-doping tests.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) explained that Phonak had presented a series of suspicious blood tests in 2004 and had been formally warned. "Doubts surrounded abnormal values in the blood of certain Phonak athletes - the team management were called in to be made aware of this," said the governing body.

Hamilton had been supported by the team in his fight against a ban, but the team seems to have abandoned him during an unsuccessful campaign to gain a place in next year's major races in the inaugural ProTour series.

The revelation that Phonak had parted company with the Olympic champion was made public in a UCI press release yesterday. It formally rejected the team's application to form part of the ProTour circuit, in which the 20 leading teams are guaranteed a place in the year's major events.

Phonak were yesterday unavailable for comment. Signs that the American had used an illegal blood transfusion were found in two blood samples taken after he won the Olympic time-trial gold in Athens in August and after his stage victory in the Tour of Spain in September.

Hamilton retained his time-trial medal when his second control sample could not be tested to confirm the initial result because it had been deep-frozen. The Tour of Spain positive was, however, confirmed, and the case goes before the United States Anti-Doping Agency on January 25th.

Phonak supported Hamilton in his denial that he had used illegal methods, and set up a committee of five scientists to fight his case and that of a second team member who had also tested positive, the Tour of Spain runner-up Santi Perez. The team told the UCI that the committee's provisional findings gave a split verdict: two for, two against, one undecided.

Guardian Service